When come clean commented on my blog, I found an interesting site. I’ve been meaning to write about it since, but…Anyway, ConfessMail is a website which posts the picture postcards of confessions that people have (snail) mailed the organisation. On a similar note, the SocialMoth application on Facebook lets you say (and ‘heart’ with) stuff you wouldn’t say without the safety of anonymity to buffer you. Some of the lines I saw recently on SocialMoth:
‘What do you do when you know you’re betraying someone and you can’t help yourself?’
‘I know I should leave you but I can’t.’
and a thousand others, some of which I even ‘hearted’, and much of which is (surprisingly) nice. The strange thing is that you can see/feel the trauma/pain that these people are feeling. Or maybe you just think that what you would feel had you been in that situation is what they actually feel.
What is it about being anonymous that sets you free to be what you’d be minus society (which is, admittedly, not very nice sometimes)? And why do you relate so much better when there isn’t a byline? Maybe it is easier to put on someone else’s shoes when you don’t know who they are.
A snapshot of lives and a window to souls:
Camphor's 
Brings to mind a short story by Jhumpa Lahiri – ‘A Temporary Matter’, from the Interpreter of Maladies. It’s the story of a young couple who exchange confessions each night as they struggle to cope with their love-less marriage. Catch that sometime!
@sagaro
Maybe it isn’t vanity as much as a desire to belong, and a desire to be recognised.
@s
I’ll look it up! Thanks. 🙂
And I found mine here. 🙂
@Camphor:
A desire to belong to what? People you don’t care about. A guy who lives 20 blocks away from your house.
@Suraksha:
You need not look for anyone. Kai le venai irukamothu ethuku nayi ku alaiyure? At your service.
@gapp:
Thank you!
I guess it comes back to being an incognito.. somehow when I started blogging, the name immediately came to me. Some unfound freedom unfolds’ when you are anonymous. Maybe, that anonymity is for yourself sometimes to face reality and the bitter truth head-on.
Its good to be back 🙂
Part of the freedom of being anomynous is that you don’t have the responsibility to stand behind what you say. It’s part of the reason I use my full name on here now. This way I have to stand by every word I say. There’s a freedom in losing that.
I think that’s why some people go to church to confess. It’s an anomynous voice seeking a little forgiveness. That’s kind of what this reminds me of. And that, I can understand.
@Sagaro
To belong to someone, anyone. I guess it needn’t be 20 blocks away, maybe an entire world away – how many people do you ‘connect’ to, anyway?
@S
I think you just need to figure out life for yourself. People who pretend to guide you are usually sham. People you can learn from are usually the ones who don’t go around proclaiming that they found Wisdom. Besides, Gurus can’t get you nirvana. Siddhatha, Herman Hesse. Read it?
@Incognito
It’s good to see you back! I sed to be anonymous. I still prefer not to be called on the blog by my RL name, but some people outed my name a long time back. So I didn’t get the chance to make an obnoxiously loud announcement about who I am. For what it is worth, one of my pages has information on the RL me. And I find that it is… quite fun to not be anonymous anymore.
@MTTime
Sometimes the name you remember people by are the names you fist knew them by. And since names have meanings, when one first sticks out one’s hand and say, “I’m Sarani”, it has a different ‘feel’ than when one says, ‘I’m Camphor’. I like to think that the name I use here is the name I might have chosen had I had a choice. Makes sense?
I see your point ms. camphor. That said, It’s nice to know sometimes that the person I’m talking to on the other end is real and genuine. (And in your case, brilliant, don’t believe me, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY)
Joshua Pantalleresco
MTT.Mr_Pants
PS. I’m sending you something for Christmas. Deal With it. 😛
And in January, I haven’t forgotten…